Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Up 69.4% in September

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 12,813,233 shares, an increase of 69.4% from the September 15th total of 7,565,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,675,716 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $71.00 price objective on shares of Nutrien in a report on Monday. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Nutrien from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Nutrien from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. set a $85.00 price target on shares of Nutrien and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Nutrien from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.90.

Nutrien Stock Performance

Nutrien stock traded down $0.43 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $69.44. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,435,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,045,062. The firm has a market cap of $33.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.06, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $73.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $70.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Nutrien has a twelve month low of $53.03 and a twelve month high of $85.36.

Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.70 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $10.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.44 billion. Nutrien had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 8.88%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Nutrien will post 4.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nutrien Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 29th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Nutrien’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.53%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nutrien

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of Nutrien in the 2nd quarter valued at $654,081,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter valued at about $588,720,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of Nutrien during the 2nd quarter valued at about $375,178,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Nutrien in the second quarter valued at about $359,318,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Nutrien in the second quarter valued at about $220,942,000. 63.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Nutrien

Nutrien Ltd. is a Canada-based provider of crop inputs, services and solutions for agricultural producers. The company produces and distributes potash, nitrogen and phosphate products, which are used to support crop nutrition and agricultural productivity. Its product portfolio also includes crop protection products, seed, farm supplies and other agronomic inputs.

Nutrien serves farmers through a broad retail network operating primarily across North and South America, Australia and other international markets.